The FTC and the State of New Jersey recently announced a settlement with Vizio, Inc., in the amount of $2.2 million for tracking consumer behavior using its smart television devices.
The complaint alleged that Vizio acted unfairly by collecting, storing (indefinitely) and sharing consumer data with third parties without consent and in an unexpected manner. Further, the complaint alleged that Vizio had misrepresented the functionality of the feature in their smart televisions that collected such data (also known as “Smart Interactivity”). It was also alleged that these practices were an unconscionable [...] Read more

Earlier this year, the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security at the George Washington University (“Center”) announced a new project on active defense against cyber threats. The Center established a high-level task force to examine these issues. The task force included prominent cybersecurity and industry experts, including Alston & Bird partner Michael Zweiback.
The Task Force successfully released its final report in October. It is available here.
The report comes at a time when cyber vulnerabilities have been exploited by hostile state and non-state actors in cyberspace [...] Read more

More regulators (apart from the FTC) are now taking note of cybersecurity issues in the financial services industry and are taking steps to protect the industry and its consumers.
Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued its first enforcement action on data security against an online payment system. In June, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (“FFIEC”), an interagency body, issued a press release advising financial institutions to review their risk-management practices. Last month, the New York State Department of Financial [...] Read more